The Era of Gods

Chapter 490: Chapter 490: Failed Experiment?

As that speck of consciousness kept advancing in level, its power grew steadily, and the mountain that separated it from the rest began to thin, becoming ever so tenuous.

Recently, when trying to make contact, what was once a mountain had become a wall, and now it felt like a layer of paper, a layer of kraft paper—extremely thin yet impressively resilient, impossible to pierce through with just a finger.

He knew he had to wait, wait for that consciousness to ascend even further.

When that time came, it would be time for him to cheat again.

He was immensely interested in the Crystal Wall System called Star Soul. Two beings, on par with Super Divine Power, were competing for a grand position in the ultimate and most critical step, teeming with immense risks. After all, should the human side’s mighty figure fall, all the humans in this world and those that Descend on their behalf would perish.

Even though it was just a loss of a sliver of the consciousness attached to the Soul of God, given the means of the great existences, it would undoubtedly affect their True Bodies.

Direct annihilation was unlikely, but it would certainly cause injury to their True Bodies.

The same applied to the Nightmare World—if the human side’s mighty figure defeated the Nightmare Sovereign, they would undoubtedly take the opportunity to weaken those Descenders who were the Children of Nightmare.

But with great risks came great opportunities. He wouldn’t dare claim seizing these opportunities—it was impossible for him, merely a demigod unable to do so even if his True Body Descended—but with the cheat in play, he would have an advantage over others.

If he could be the critical factor at the most crucial moment—indirectly or even directly altering the situation to owe a favor from that mighty figure—that would be a huge win.

Setting that matter aside for now, Lin Xiao refocused his attention on another issue: the problem of bloodline sorcerers.

Well, there was no issue with bloodline sorcerers per se—the key was their metamorphosis. He needed to find a way to lower the requirements for the transformation of bloodline sorcerers.

At present, bloodline sorcerers required an ascension to Rank 8 Legendary Level to undergo metamorphosis. Although the metamorphosed form was the powerful Supreme Naga, their numbers were too few. He wanted to adjust this, so that bloodline sorcerers would only require Rank 7 or even lower to undergo metamorphosis, and not just to turn into Supreme Naga. If Rank 7 was the only requirement, then it would become much easier to produce more Star Spirits.

In the last great conflict, many of his Clan suffered losses. With tens of thousands of Supreme Naga perishing, the loss was considerable. He needed to find a way to boost the numbers of his Core Races.

No matter how strong, a race was not viable with too few numbers.

Lin Xiao already had a preliminary plan in mind and was ready to give it a try.

Ordinary bloodline sorcerers used the common blood of Supreme Naga or Star Spirits—just the regular blood that was spilled during an injury. What if he condensed the blood used for the bloodline seeds into essence blood? Could that induce bloodline sorcerers to awaken and metamorphose earlier?

Such similar methods had been applied in many cases and didn’t require any experiments; the success rate was quite high. He decided to give it a try.

Now there was only one issue: determining the concentration needed to allow bloodline sorcerers to ascend to Rank 7 and transform into Rank 7 Asura Naga. This required gradual experimentation and the creation of samples for the warriors of Dragon City State to use, followed by practical observation.

To save time, he attempted twelve different concentrations, with the lowest being five times the current bloodline sorcerer seed concentration. Ten of these concentrations increased by threefold increments, reaching the final concentration of thirty-two times the original.

Then there were two additional concentrations at fiftyfold and a hundredfold, set as another group of experimental parameters.

He prepared a hundred samples of each of these twelve groups of bloodline seeds, totaling twelve hundred, which were then labeled, bestowed, and personally monitored.

To better observe, he formed an army out of these bloodline sorcerers infused with the experimental seeds, specifically assigning them to the frontline where they encountered the Underground Insects, provided with the best logistical support. They had an abundant supply of needed meat—whatever quantity they required—and the intense combat conditions coupled with ample nutrition allowed them the chance to grow rapidly.

Time flew by unnoticed as these bloodline sorcerers continually died and grew amidst fierce battles.

The concentrated bloodline exhibited itself vividly before his eyes; they were indeed stronger than their first-generation counterparts at the same level, beginning to exhibit bloodline traits earlier.

For instance, golden Dragon Scales appeared on their bodies ahead of time, and preternatural metamorphosis set in earlier and more intensely than before. The higher the concentration of bloodline, the more intense the reaction—especially in the last two groups at fiftyfold and a hundredfold concentration, who reached the peak of Rank 5 and were on the verge of advancing to the Transcendent Level of Rank 6, while the other sorcerers of their batch were only around Rank 4.

One day, right before his eyes, a patrol comprised of several bloodline sorcerers encountered an Insect squad in a dark canyon, and a skirmish broke out instantly.

The Insects prompted various underground creatures under their care to attack these five bloodline sorcerers, who bravely issued a signal and then launched a counter-charge.

The leading bloodline sorcerer happened to be one of the experiment subjects with a hundredfold concentration. Even at Rank 5, he exhibited anomalies that other sorcerers would only have above the Transcendent Level of Rank 6; his body was covered in gold scales, and when Insects threw spears at him from afar, sparks flew off, deflecting the spears, leaving him unharmed.

A beast, akin to a wild boar, charged at him like a tank. With a fearless roar, his body visibly swelled as he met the beast’s charge head-on.

“Bang!”

A cloud of broken leaves tumbled in all directions, and in less than a second of deadlock, the fierce beast was wrestled into retreating backward by the large man. The beast’s thick legs kicked up clods of earth and it howled in protest, but it could not break free.

“His strength is more than three times greater than those of the same rank.”

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But compared to his formidable performance, the other four bloodline sorcerers weren’t as exaggerated. Nonetheless, they were still much stronger than the insects, so even though there were only five of them, they didn’t collapse.

For Lin Xiao, battles that didn’t even reach the transcendent level of Rank 6 were uninteresting, having witnessed too many high-level conflicts; lower-level battles didn’t catch his interest.

To him, anything below Rank 6 was considered low-level, but in fact, for most beings from different domains and other races, Rank 6 was already enough to be called a powerhouse, as was the case for the natives of the Moon Cloud Realm.

This is the main reason why with only a few hundred thousand people, the Dragon City State was able to stand firm and even withstand the assaults of the underground insects: tribe warriors who switched to bloodline sorcerers were simply too powerful. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

In fact, in that dimension, without Feng Ziqi and Cao Yichen and the others, the Dragon Tribe with over a hundred Rank 8 Asura Naga leaders could have easily swept across the entire dimension.

The battle lasted only about fifteen minutes before it began to draw to a close, with four out of the five bloodline sorcerers being besieged and killed, leaving only the strongest leader resisting. But it seemed inevitable that he too would be slain.

After all, they were too few in number – there were only five of them, while the insect middle squad numbered over a hundred, not to mention the nearly two hundred underground creatures they cultivated. If all five had been leaders, they might have broken through, but sadly, they were not.

Lin Xiao made no move to intervene, even if this strongest specimen was about to be killed, he remained indifferent.

As his strength continued to grow and his followers increased, his mentality also changed continuously.

If it had been just after he became the Son of the Divine Realm with only a hundred or so followers, even the death of a single Grey Mist Fishman who hadn’t reached the First Level would have pained him. Now, he might at best regret seeing a few Rank 6 transcendents from the Supreme Naga die before his eyes.

When his power grew even stronger in the future, or if he became a True God, then even the death of a few legendary clan members wouldn’t…

Well, he still cherished those who reached the Legendary Level, but his concern for those below it diminished.

While he was reflecting on this, a sudden change below caught his eye; the besieged bloodline warrior grabbed the spear stuck in his chest and let out a sky-splitting roar as a burst of golden light mixed with strength erupted from the depths of his body and blasted all the surrounding enemies away.

“Did he advance in rank?”

With his true sight piercing through the golden light, Lin Xiao saw the warrior’s wounds healing at a visible rate under the golden glow, flesh regenerating rapidly, his entire body swelling and enlarging at an extreme speed.

“Metamorphosis? But it doesn’t seem quite right.”

He had observed several bloodline sorcerers ascend to the Legendary Level and metamorphose into Lords of Nagas many times. The warrior’s condition was somewhat similar to that, yet also different.

As he pondered, the transformation was complete. A creature with a human head and dragon body, covered in golden scales and a dragon’s tail – very similar to a dragon person – appeared before him.

After the metamorphosis, the creature’s strength surged; the insect attacks couldn’t harm him at all, and with a simple strike, he could send the insects flying. He would grab any fierce beasts that lunged at him and tear them apart alive. Flesh and blood flew everywhere. The scene resembled a slaughterhouse and was extremely brutal.

Lin Xiao watched with pleasure. Although the transformation was not yet complete, the displayed strength was quite impressive.

However, as he observed, he suddenly realized something was wrong. The metamorphosed warrior seemed to be out of his mind.

“Could it be a failed metamorphosis?”

No sooner had the words fallen than the warrior shook violently, his body beginning to tremble severely before he collapsed forward, his body starting to melt away.

“Did the metamorphosis truly fail?”

With a sweep of his hand, an invisible force snatched the body away, leaving a circle of bewildered insects behind.

“There’s no reason for this!”

Lin Xiao was confounded. Previously in that dimension, not a single one of the many bloodline sorcerers who metamorphosed into Supreme Naga lords had failed; all were successful. Why had there been a failure here?

“Could it be that the bloodline concentration was too high, and the body’s constitution was insufficient to bear the metamorphosis into a Supreme Naga?”

This speculation wasn’t baseless, given that one was a human and the other a legendary species of Supreme Naga, the difference in physical constitution was too great, and early metamorphosis could lead to failure.

Of course, this was just Lin Xiao’s guess. The exact reason was still uncertain, and he shifted his gaze to the remaining subjects, planning to observe more and ascertain the exact cause.

Time flew by swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.

His true body was conducting experiments successfully in the Moon Cloud Realm, and his incarnations in the Star Soul Crystal Wall System, that digitized world, were also faring well. Even with the absurdly increasing experience requirements for later stages, he managed to hard grind his magic damage to Level 68.

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